Broadcasting

ABC Case

Pictured: Duncan Campbell, Crispin Aubrey and John Berry during the ABC Case.

The ABC Case of the 1977-78 drew national attention following the incumbent Labour government decision to employ the Official Secrets Act 1911 to intimidate the press from investigating the country's signal intelligence operation.

The case emerged after Duncan Campbell and Time Out reporter Crispin Aubrey met with former Ministry of Defence employee, John Berry in Berry's north London home. Seven years previous, Berry had worked for Signals Intelligence [SIGINT] in Cyprus. Berry claimed to have information exposing the inner working of the UK's surveillance activities.

At the 18 Feb meeting, the two journalists discovered that Berry's knowledge was largely out of date, rendering the encounter journalistically unproductive. Upon their exit from Berry's home, however, all three were arrested by Special Branch and charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Police were alerted to the meeting since Campbell had been placed under surveillance by MI5 and Special Branch following revelations in a Time Out article, The Eavesdroppers, the previous year detailed secret government spying agency GCHQ.

Below will find an ever-growing cache of material related to the case.

In Spies We Trust: On the arrest of Duncan Campbell and the ABC trial of 1978

Rhodhri Jeffreys-Jones talks about Duncan Campbell's arrest in the ABC Trial, which he discusses in a chapter of his new book, 'In Spies We Trust.' You can read part of the chapter here and purchase a copy from the Oxford University Press

Video: On the Grounds of National Insecurity

On the Grounds of National Security gives some background information into the Agee-Hosenball Affair, which put in motion the events which would lead to the ABC Case the following year.

Further reading

There are a number of interesting first-hand accounts from those involved directly in the case. We have begun to collate these below. We are also including press clipping and interesting documents for those interested in further research.

The Eavesdroppers

Duncan's seminal investigation into GCHQ. Until its publication in 1976, no news source in Britain had mentioned its existence.